# Most challenging or difficult stage role

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-challenging-or-difficult-stage-role/998079>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** theater-stage-dance\
**Created:** [February 25, 2024, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-challenging-or-difficult-stage-role/998079 "2024-02-25T23:25:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2024, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-challenging-or-difficult-stage-role/998079/21 "2024-02-28T12:16:08Z")

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I think Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart did something similar in _Waiting for Godot._

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-challenging-or-difficult-stage-role/998079/22 "2024-02-28T13:04:28Z")

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You want difficult? The role of Joseph (John) Merrick in Bernard Pomerantz’ **The Elephant Man** requires the actor to spend virtually the whole play in unnatural positions to suggest Merrick’s deformity. The published edition of the play comes with a warning against adopting those poses for extended periods of time lest the actor incur serious damage. It’s suggested that they work with a doctor to figure out how to perform with minimum harm.

As one actor recalled:

> [@](#):
>
> “The physical challenge is having to twist body and hold it for two hours. It’s brutal, we did 120 performances in New York and in the last two weeks of the play I started to feel it in my back and my mouth and my face, all the muscles got very strong.

> **[Cooper Reveals Back Pain from Elephant Man Stage Role](https://www.lispine.com/blog/cooper-reveals-back-pain-from-elephant-man-stage-role/)**
>
> Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper has revealed he has to hang upside down on an inversion table to straighten his back after playing Joseph Merrick on stage in...

Or consider the roles Michael Crawford played. He did **The Phantom of the Opera** with half his face under pretty impressive makeup, and had to sing under that and perform physical feats. And do it every night. For **Barnum** , where he played Phineas Taylor Barnum, he walked around the freakin’ stage _on stilts_!

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